Rescued hostage says he was told to convert to Islam for food

Rom Braslavski, one of the freed hostages, says the Hamas captors told him to convert to Islam if he wanted food:

According to her son's testimony, which she revealed, Tami said Rom's captors abused him psychologically, told him that Iran bombed Israel, that his parents weren't at the protests in the square, and chose to show him specifically only the Kaplan protests, while lying to him that his parents forgot about him.

Not only that, his mother said his captors tried to convince him to fast during Ramadan or read chapters from the Quran and convert to Islam, in exchange for food and improved conditions, but he refused. As evidence of the mental crisis he experienced as a result of the psychological manipulations his captors operated on him, the mother recounts, "And now when he returned, he keeps saying all the time 'I'm Jewish.'"

"I didn't understand why he keeps saying 'I'm Jewish,' 'I'm a strong Jew.' It was so important to him to preserve his Jewish identity because they asked him to convert to Islam and tempted him, if you fast in Ramadan we'll give you food, soap, all kinds of things that for us are banal, but Rom didn't break, and however he came he put on tefillin, we brought him the tefillin to the hospital and he put them on."

Here's more info about this abominable case:

His captors weaponized food, turning starvation into a weapon to break his faith. “They asked him to convert to Islam and tempted him — if you fast during Ramadan we’ll give you food, soap, all kinds of things that for us are banal — but Rom didn’t break,” Tami said, adding that guards dangled extra rations and hygiene items if he would read from the Quran.

It's remarkable he held firm. But will this teach any left-wing Israelis why the Religion of Peace is a bad thing? Who knows? That's another serious issue that has to be raised, whether anybody in Israel is going to learn from this.

A vital point made about the need to disarm Hamas

Donald Trump made a vital point that the Hamas must surrender and disarm:

US President Donald Trump addressed the next phases of the Gaza peace plan, which began with a ceasefire and the return of all of the living hostages who remained in captivity yesterday.

Speaking to the media today (Tuesday), President Trump stated that "they will disarm because they said they are going to disarm. And if they don't disarm, we will disarm them."

"They know I'm not playing games," he added of Hamas.

Addressing the release of the hostages, he stated: "We did something monumental - we got the hostages back. That was the first thing we had to do, above all else, get the hostages back. They misrepresented, because we were told that they had 26-24 of dead hostages, if we can use those terms. It seems they don't have that, because we're talking about a much lesser number. That's a very tough subject. I want them back."

Even the bodies of dead victims must be returned. Last time I looked, only 4 had been. That's going to have to be the next serious step taken.

Update: here's also an important article where one of the hostages recalls how he was tortured by the jihadists when he was in their clutches:

Avi Ohana, the father of Yosef Haim Ohana, who was released from Hamas captivity, shared his emotions with the Moreshet channel, following his son’s return and spoke about the spiritual strength that sustained the family throughout the past two years.

“I am walking on cloud nine, in the sky,” he said emotionally. “For two years I could not sleep because of the pain, and now I cannot sleep because of the joy. This miracle is something beyond nature. As the days go by, I realize how much greater it is. The verse from Psalms is being fulfilled: ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.’”

According to Ohana, after the signing of the latest deal, his son was transferred - together with about seven other hostages - to a deep, narrow pit, where they were held under extremely harsh conditions.

“They couldn’t sit, only stand and lean against the wall. There was no oxygen. A person could die just from that alone, God forbid. It was literally, ‘And Joseph was brought down to Egypt’ - Joseph in the pit,” he said.

“The miracle was tremendous,” he added. “He told me many things we didn’t know. After the deal was signed, we thought they were probably being taken out of the tunnels and organized for release. I asked him, ‘Was it really like that?’ He said, ‘Dad, after the deal was signed, they put me with six other guys and took us down the stairs - down, down, down. We thought we were going to another tunnel.’ But they ended up in a pit so small that seven men could barely stand, unable to sit, leaning against the wall. The lack of oxygen alone could have killed them.”

Ohana emphasized that what kept his son alive was faith and the thought of family. “Only one thing - family. The thought of dad, mom, brothers, friends. That’s what gave him strength.”

He's definitely lucky to have survived. And if his captors could be wiped out, they'll deserve to be sent to hell for what they did to him, period.

More about the troubling propaganda of a clothesmaker pushing modesty

About a week ago, I wrote about a clothesmaker named Sivan Ruham Moshe, who was disgustingly pushing modesty propaganda for women in fashion. Now, here's another puff piece from Ynet that's got similarly troubling propaganda in it. For example:

Before Katzin, model Eden Fines announced in 2021 that once a week she would dress more modestly “as a way to grow spiritually.” On other days, she continued posting provocative photos and opened an OnlyFans account. Another celebrity, model Nataly Dadon, began dressing modestly one day a week in 2022 and later expanded it to two. On a women’s tour she led in Brooklyn, she swapped her bikini for long skirts, long-sleeved shirts and, surprisingly, a wig – despite not being married and therefore not traditionally required to cover her hair.

“Today, a wig isn’t only a symbol of belonging, it’s a fashion item and even an empowerment item,” Dadon told Ynet. “Personally, I chose to pair it with moments of modesty. Twice a week, I dress modestly, not out of obligation but from inner connection. I love the nobility and calm in it. Where in the past I mostly revealed, today I find new beauty in simplicity and grace. Modesty isn’t a set of clothes but a state of mind.”

It's bad enough somebody sounds like she believes her natural hair's an abomination, which is definitely what she risks implying. Despite what she says, it is a set of clothes, and all based on moral panic hysteria. But here's where things become even more horrific:

A global trend with a local twist

Modest fashion is a global category, driven in part by Muslim influencers and luxury brands creating collections for Ramadan. In Israel, Jewish and Muslim women sometimes shop at the same modest boutiques. The upcoming Tel Aviv Fashion Week will feature, for the first time, ultra-Orthodox and religious designers presenting modest fashion collections.

Well, this is definitely telling too, when the writers and even the interviewees themselves indicate they see nothing wrong with the influence of the Religion of Peace. Which just further raises my suspictions this is, in a way, a stealth promotion for what the Religion of Peace would want, and how many people like this, religious or otherwise, could be favorable to Islam?

Still, modesty is not only about clothing but about control, argued Dr. Rachel Getz Salomon, head of the fashion design department at the University of Haifa. “In every war, modesty was recruited: every extra centimeter on a skirt meant another soldier would come home,” she said. “Fashion and modesty are almost oxymoronic. Religion despises fashion but also feeds on it.”

Salomon recalled seeing photos of her grandmother – the wife of a chief rabbi – wearing a mini dress with no head covering. “In recent decades, Israel has undergone a terrible radicalization,” she said. “The focus on modesty turns women’s bodies into a battleground.”

Yet within the strict boundaries, she sees an act of resistance: “Women check off the modesty box but still dress tight and shiny. They do what they want, while appearing to conform.”

Well I'm sorry, but this is still a very bad influence, because it risks legitimizing ideologies that reduce women to nothing more than sexual, imply women's bodies are an abomination, blame them for all the evils occuring in the world, imply they should be ashamed of their bodies, which is what many modern feminists have pushed, and that's offensive. And it only gets worse with the following:

Between parody and reverence

The modesty trend has also inspired parody. On the sketch show Mi Zot (Who Is She?) on public broadcaster Kan, actress Magi Azarzar plays “Alata,” a headscarf-wearing ultra-Orthodox influencer who mixes foul language with piety. Online creator Maor Maya produces parody videos under the character “Tut HaTzniut” (Berry of Modesty), which have even reached religious audiences.

“My mission is to bring queer representation to places it usually doesn’t go,” Maya said. “The women who make the original modesty videos are already a little parodic – they’re great performers with humor. My character adds a queer twist, but with respect.”

Forget it, this is telling too - so women dressing sexy is inherently wrong, but homosexuality is entirely okay? That's what this paragraph near the end strongly implies. All this does is make clear the puff piece is - what else? - left-wing propaganda, proving they were never truly favorable to skimpy dress after all. It's basically the same mindset that took place a decade ago in the USA, for example, and it's humiliatingly bad. The people pushing this should be looked upon in disgrace and shame. All they're doing is promoting more stealth propaganda that's hurtful to women.

All the last living hostages have been freed from captivity

After nearly 750 days, the last hostages held by Hamas have been freed from captivity, but the downside is that it's not without a price. Here's more:

As the fragile ceasefire in Gaza holds, Israel anticipates the release of all remaining Israeli hostages, including its final 20 living hostages, from Hamas captivity Monday morning, under the first phase of a historic U.S.-brokered peace plan spearheaded by President Donald Trump.

The initial batch of seven were handed over early this morning, and the full transfer expected by noon local time, marking an emotional culmination after more than two years of anguish since the October 7, 2023, terror attacks that claimed 1,200 Israeli lives and saw 251 people abducted as hostages. In exchange, Israel will free approximately 2,000 Palestinian terrorist prisoners, including 250 serving long sentences and 1,700 detained during the conflict.

This is obviously the sad part, no matter how relieving it is the last hostages were freed. And it only enforces the vital query of if the Israeli and USA governments are going to do everything possible to continue trying to get the Hamas out of Gaza, and in addition, it has to be made clear Israelis cannot be forbidden to walk upon the terrain of Gaza any longer. That's another something that must be dealt with in the future, recalling how there were pseudo-conservatives in the USA in the past 2 decades who were guilty of this dhimmitude defeatism that led to the situation, and that's something they must take accountability for.

Update: here's more on the occasion of the hostages thankfully being freed, as Donald Trump arrived to speak at the Knesset.